Tank Recommendation for small woman

[TSandM]

No, no, no Spare Air as backup! If you are going to carry a redundant tank for bailout, at least carry something that actually has enough gas in it to make a safe ascent possible!

 

[aMc10]

Pescador, I'm not sure what tanks you're referring to, but the 232 bar steels I'm looking at are approximately equivalent in weight, buoyancy and capacity to the US standard HP steels.

The 232 12.2l is 100 cuft, weight 28.4#, height 24.6", diameter 7" buoyancy -9.4# empty, -1.9 full. This doesn't seem so different to me from, for example, a worthington X7-100 at 100 cuft, weight 33#, height 24", diameter 7.25" buoyancy -10# empty, -2.5 full.

Here's a link to the sizes typically available to me:
Faber Steel Cylinders - 232 bar - The Scuba Doctor Dive Shop - Buy Scuba Gear & Scuba Diving Equipment
Faber Steel Cylinders - 300 bar - The Scuba Doctor Dive Shop - Buy Scuba Gear & Scuba Diving Equipment

I don't know what "Water rats" is, but as you'll see from the links above, the 7 litre 232 bar is the same diameter as the 10.5l and 12.2 l and is, for some reason longer than both.

Up till now, I've been renting the 10.5l, 232 bar tank with no issues - in fact, today I managed to climb up a 3m ladder while wearing one. It has also provided with me with enough air to be back on the boat with 70 bar after a no-decompression dive to 34m.

TSandM, don't worry - I wouldn't be diving with less than a 19cuft pony as my redundant air source. If nothing else, my deep dive instructor would hang me up by my fin straps

 

[TSandM]

Well, you're a lot like me. I can do just about any dive I'm willing to do on less than 80 cu ft of gas, but I subscribe to the concept of rock bottom, which mandates fairly large reserves for deeper dives, and for that reason, I like a little larger tank. As I said, I dive 95s when I dive single tanks, but the 100s are a bit lighter and smaller in diameter for more gas. If I'm going to do a dive where I can't maintain reserves on 100 cu ft, I'll dive doubles.

As I said, what you can haul around really changes with time. I couldn't lift 130s to the top of the sea wall at Catalina a year ago -- I easily did it by myself this year. I'm not getting older, I'm getting STRONGER!

 

[thanksforallthefish]

If you are concerned about the weight ... I know of a lady from a lds (Australia) had trouble with the weight of a single tank and they were able to organise a high pressure carbon fibre tank for her.

No idea what it cost ... I assume it would be quite expensive ... money seemed no object to her as she had purchased ALL her gear prior to completing her course and bought a shark pod after eventually getting certified

 

[D_B]

Carbon fiber tank will be (is, worthington makes a wrapped carbon fiber 4500psi scuba tank) lighter than a steel tank out of the water, but your going to have to carry more weight somewhere else to compensate for the buoyancy of that light tank when in the water

 

[pescador775]

AMC, thanks for the update. Faber have discontinued those heavy, HP tanks in the USA. I see now that they are offering new, light weight tanks in Australia. I did not know that. My apologies to you, TSM and all. Since the Faber tanks are light in weight it does make it more likely that you would be able to handle a small pony as opposed to SpareAir.

The "inside baseball" question is what type of steel are these tanks made of? I suppose it is possible that they use the proprietary alloy originally offered by the USA company PST and now seen in use in other brands. The test criteria specified by Faber suggest this. I would not be entirely surprised if they were "LP" tanks with a higher pressure rating. However, for competitive reasons I do suspect that they have adopted the E9791 alloy used in the USA.

don't know what "Water rats" is, but as you'll see from the links above, the 7 litre 232 bar is the same diameter as the 10.5l and 12.2 l and is, for some reason longer than both.

Water Rats was a long running Aus TV show featuring the Sidney Water Police divers. Their SCUBA were AGA Divator twin sets.
The 7 liter is 5.5 diameter and would make a really nice set of custom doubles! We have a similar tank called the LP 45 and more than a few custom brackets and manifolds have been fashioned for this purpose.

 

[pescador775]

Thank you for the links to Faber products. The new offerings are very interesting in terms of capacity, weight and dimensions. These tanks are not the same as USA mfg tanks. IMO, the specifications are better. The remarkable thing is that the specs indicate that the diameters of the 10.5 and 12 liter tanks are seven inches as opposed to 7.25 inches for the USA offerings. This diameter is the same as our old LP "72's" which was just the right size for Americans of that time. In 1972, with the advent of aluminum tanks in the USA the diameters were bumped up in view of the thickness of the aluminum tank walls. Following this, there was a gradual trend to increase the diameter and shorten the length of steel tanks with equal capacity. Moreover, there was a trend to offer monster tanks of 120 cf capacity and more. This was due to increased size of people and various programs promoting "big gas" safety issues. AMC, you are lucky that these products are offered in your area. While it is true that the size, strength and air consumption of individuals has increased on average which lead to the market for really big tanks, I still think that many people would appreciate the opportunity to purchase tanks in the old dimensional format but with higher working pressures and capacities. You, personally, are particularly fortunate that the 10.5 liter is available to you. I'm not sure why you even bothered to look for advice or validation. The diameter, weight and length are ideal, and the capacity is adequate. In previous years, I'm not sure you would have been able to plan a 30 or 40 meter dive due to the weight and dimensions of tanks which were offered in Aus. It would have been a problem to carry enough air with safety. The Aus tanks which I remember were short, fat, heavy and ugly.

 

[Spimon]

A little off topic, buuuut..

Local regulations require the use of a redundant air source (this can be spare air, a pony or twins) below 30m.

Wow, I've never heard of this. Where abouts and who sets this regulation? I head to Melb occasionally and would like to go for a dive sometime. Would like to find out more.

 

[drl]

I'm about the same size as the OP. I have a HP steel 100, which I love. It's not too long (I can carry it at arms length, and it's a reasonable length for my torso) and it holds lots of gas. But I have no idea how that compares to the tanks available Down Under.
When I dive AL 80s on vacation, it always takes me a few dives to get my trim back, since the silly things are so ridiculously long!

 

[pescador775]

drl, do you carry a pony bottle with the "100". Try it and feel the love. Try it at arms length and feel the hernia.